HAWTHORN has given its strongest indication yet that four-time premiership defender Grant Birchall will resume playing before the end of the year.

The 30-year-old running half-back hasn't played since round 15 last year because of a series of knee injuries, but is back doing ball work at training.

"He’s getting better, he really is," high performance manager Andrew Russell told hawthornfc.com.au. "We’re happy and he’s in a training phase now.

"We know there’s a certain amount of work you need to do to play AFL footy and we’re in that phase where we’re starting to think about performance and the end of the year when he’s now a realistic chance to play."

On a more immediate note, the Hawks will be bolstered for Sunday’s must-win clash with Fremantle at Optus Stadium by the return of evergreen utility Shaun Burgoyne, after a four-week hamstring. He has been training fully since last week.

And midfielder Jaeger O’Meara, who was a late withdrawal on the weekend because of a hip compliant, is rated a "good chance" by Russell of returning for the clash in his home state.

Midfielder Will Langford (finger) and back-up ruckman Marc Pittonet (ankle) will resume, albeit at VFL level.

No.1 ruckman Ben McEvoy (cheekbone) is back doing running but is a few weeks away from returning. James Sicily has had his surgery on his broken scaphoid and will soon resume training.